Vice President of Technology, Olenox Industries (NASDAQ: OLOX)
Cognitive neuroscientist. He co-founded PsyLinks Neurotech in August 2024. Olenox Industries acquired the company in July 2026.
Michael McLaren-Gradinaru is Vice President of Technology at Olenox Industries Inc. (NASDAQ: OLOX), a vertically integrated U.S. energy company headquartered in Conroe, Texas. He is responsible for technology across Olenox's operating companies, including technical due diligence on acquisitions. He worked with Olenox from 2024 as its contract Director of Technology before joining full time in July 2026.
He co-founded PsyLinks Neurotech Corp in Calgary in August 2024 with Ford Burles, PhD, ran it alongside his PhD until late 2025, then full time. PsyLinks built systems intelligence: EEG, fNIRS, eye tracking, and behaviour recorded together and read as one signal, and the same approach applied to operational data from industrial equipment. Olenox acquired the company on July 3, 2026, and he joined Olenox as part of the acquisition. Its systems are described below.
He holds a PhD in Psychology (Brain and Cognition, 2025) and an MSc in Neuroscience (2019) from the University of Calgary, and an Honours BSc in Neurobiology (2016) from Brock University. His doctoral work was funded by an NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship. He has published five peer-reviewed papers on spatial cognition and EEG, three as first author, cited 77 times (Google Scholar, September 2026). He lives in Houston, Texas.
Vertically integrated U.S. energy company
Nasdaq-listed, headquartered in Conroe, Texas. Formerly Safe and Green Holdings, renamed in January 2026. Director of Technology on contract, 2024 to 2026. Vice President of Technology since July 2026.
Neurotechnology and applied intelligence
Systems that read human and machine signals as one. Co-founded in Calgary in August 2024 with Ford Burles, PhD. Acquired by Olenox Industries on July 3, 2026 and operated as a wholly owned subsidiary.
Built at PsyLinks and the University of Calgary. PsyLinks systems are Olenox Industries property.
2025 to 2026, PsyLinks
Operator-state monitoring for aviation and industrial control rooms. Began as multimodal performance analysis of pilots in flight simulators with EEG, then a framework for testing whether an operator’s brain processed a known signal.
2026, PsyLinks
A processing and reliability-scoring layer for consumer EEG. Takes data from different headsets, cleans it, and returns signal-quality scores through one interface, so a product can tell a usable recording from noise.
2024, PsyLinks
Records independent multimodal signals, aligns them on one clock, and merges them for analysis, so behaviour and physiology can be read together.
2025, PsyLinks
A framework for building retrieval-augmented language-model tools over private document sets, with a standard tool interface.
2025, PsyLinks
An environment for building and testing neurofeedback loops: EEG and event-related potentials in, adaptive feedback and stimulation out, offline first.
2017 to 2025, University of Calgary
A virtual town built in Unreal Engine to train and measure cognitive-map formation. In the 2019 pilot, 15 adults trained in it for 12 days. In the doctoral study (2025), 29 children aged 10 to 13 took part.
Also at PsyLinks: FlowPilot, a state-aware coach for competitive gamers. Periapt, machine-learning cleanup of motion artifact in ambulatory EEG. Vantage, procedural skill acquisition in drone pilots. Open source: PyMuse, a Python wrapper for the Muse EEG headband, and pnc_asrpy, artifact subspace reconstruction for Python.
Spatial cognition, cognitive-map training, and EEG methods.
McLaren-Gradinaru, M., Burles, F., Cnudde, K., Damji, A., Berger, L., Zafar, I., Betts, N., Hanif, H., Protzner, A. B., and Iaria, G. Exploring human spatial orientation and navigation with electroencephalography: A scoping review. Spatial Cognition and Computation, 25(4), 312 to 358
McLaren-Gradinaru, M., Burles, F., Protzner, A. B., and Iaria, G. The cognitive effects of playing video games with a navigational component. Telematics and Informatics Reports, 9, 100043
Zafar, I., Burles, F., Berger, L., McLaren-Gradinaru, M., David, A. L., Dhillon, I., and Iaria, G. Anxiety and depressive traits in the healthy population does not affect spatial orientation and navigation. Brain Sciences, 13(12), 1638.
Callahan, B. L., McLaren-Gradinaru, M., Burles, F., and Iaria, G. How does dementia begin to manifest in bipolar disorder? A description of prodromal clinical and cognitive changes. Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, 82(2), 737 to 748.
McLaren-Gradinaru, M., Burles, F., Dhillon, I., David, A. L., Umiltà, A., Hannah, J., Dolhan, K., and Iaria, G. A novel training program to improve human spatial orientation: Preliminary findings. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 14, 5
Doctoral funding. NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship, Doctoral (2021 to 2024). Alberta Graduate Excellence Scholarship (2020 to 2021). University of Calgary Dean's Recruitment Scholarship (2019 to 2020).
Press. UCalgary News, January 2020: Lost? Neuroscientist's training program could get you going in the right direction.
Michael gives a small number of talks each year, by invitation. Topics below. Fees on request.
Format: 30 to 45 minutes, in person or remote. Based in Houston. Travels for in-person events.
Michael McLaren-Gradinaru is Vice President of Technology at Olenox Industries (NASDAQ: OLOX). He co-founded PsyLinks Neurotech in 2024. Olenox acquired the company in July 2026. He holds a PhD in Psychology (Brain and Cognition, 2025) from the University of Calgary and has published five peer-reviewed papers on spatial cognition and EEG. He lives in Houston, Texas.
Michael McLaren-Gradinaru is Vice President of Technology at Olenox Industries Inc. (NASDAQ: OLOX), a vertically integrated U.S. energy company. He is responsible for technology across the group's operating companies, including technical due diligence on acquisitions, and was its contract Director of Technology from 2024. He co-founded PsyLinks Neurotech Corp in Calgary in August 2024 with Ford Burles, PhD. PsyLinks built systems intelligence: EEG, fNIRS, eye tracking, and behaviour read as one signal, in systems such as PILoT, an operator-state monitor for aviation and industrial control rooms, and NeuroDSP, a signal-reliability layer for consumer EEG. Olenox acquired PsyLinks in July 2026, and he joined Olenox as part of the acquisition. He holds a PhD in Psychology (Brain and Cognition, 2025) and an MSc in Neuroscience (2019) from the University of Calgary. His doctoral work was funded by an NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship. He has published five peer-reviewed papers, three as first author. He lives in Houston, Texas.
